[Heaven] US gives up military option, non-UN sanctions against Iran
Goodtiding
DEBKAfile Special Report April 21, 2010, 5:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
US deputy defense secretary Michele Flournoy said
Wednesday, April 21: "The US
has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time
soon." This is the first time a senior administration official has
publicly admitted that America has dropped its military option against
Iran. Instead, said Flournoy, the
US is hoping that
"negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons."
Addressing a news conference in Singapore, she said clearly:
"Military force is an option of last resort, it's off the table in the near
term."
A few hours later, the Pentagon spokesman denied that a military strike
against Iran was off the
table, indicating confusion and polarization at the top of the Obama
administration on its Iran policy.
debkafile's military sources report
that Flournoy's statement contradicts every public assertion by president Barack
Obama, defense secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the joint Chiefs of
staff Adm. Mike Mullen, all of whom have insisted that all options are on the
table if Iran fails to curb its current
nuclear activities. Deputy Secretary Flournoy is regarded as a senior, serious
and responsible Pentagon official who is too experienced to go out on a limb
with a key policy statement to reporters without the highest authority.
The
policy reversal amounts to a beckoning finger at America's open door for Iran to
return to the negotiating table.
Monday and Tuesday, April 19-20,
Iran's foreign minister
Manouchehr Mottaki announced his government is willing to go back to talks with
the United
States and other powers on a deal for its
enriched uranium. Turkey has
offered its services as broker between Washington and Tehran.
But if anything, Iran's position
on its nuclear program has hardened since the first round of negotiations ended
in nothing, and the next round is likely to waste more precious months and end
the same way. Tehran's only object in seeking to
discuss an agreed outcome for the nuclear controversy is to buy time and push
away Washington's drive for tough sanctions. This
the Iranians have now achieved.
Fourney's statement that the United States is
counting on UN sanctions to deter Iran likewise plays into Tehran's hands,
because it removes the second bludgeon hanging over Iran's heads, that of US
penalties outside the world body. This is the only remaining option since most
of the informed sources quoted by US media in the past week view the
administration's hopes of Russia and China coming around to tough UN sanctions
as non-starters.
This wholesale US retreat on Iran leaves Israel as the only country still holding to a
military option for putting the brakes on Iran's progress
toward a nuclear bomb.
However, Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported
that Israel's political and
military leaders are divided on the wisdom of executing this option and
attacking Iran without
US
support.
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